


[Fandom stats] AO3 fanworks imported from Open Doors

by toastystats (destinationtoast)



Series: Fandom Stats [59]
Category: Fandom - Fandom
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Meta, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-12
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-14 10:14:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16911051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destinationtoast/pseuds/toastystats
Summary: What percentage of various fandoms' fanworks areOpen Doorsworks?  How do Open Doors fanworks differ in their tagging from other works -- especially in terms of warnings?





	[Fandom stats] AO3 fanworks imported from Open Doors

**Author's Note:**

> Originally [posted to Tumblr.](http://destinationtoast.tumblr.com/post/135090554859/a-fandom-stats-follow-up-for-sometimesnameless)

A fandom stats follow up for @sometimesnameless and other interested parties (based on [this question](http://destinationtoast.tumblr.com/post/134410227354/one-thing-ive-been-wondering-about-ao3-warnings) , which followed [this Warnings stats post](http://destinationtoast.tumblr.com/post/134376517929/the-otpodcast-had-a-recent-episode-about)):

> "One thing I've been wondering about AO3 warnings is how warnings are handled for imported archives. Obviously it will vary somewhat from archive to archive! But maybe the imported fic is bumping up the 'creator choose not to warn" section? How much imported archive fic is there on AO3 anyway?"

The lovely Open Doors volunteers got back to me and pointed me at some helpful data – much of which can be reached from the [Open Doors Fanlore page](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Open_Doors#Archives_Imported_with_the_Assistance_of_Open_Doors); Fanlore is a resource I need to make better use of!  (I’d checked the Open Doors FAQ, but not the Fanlore page.)

Open Doors – an OTW ( @transformativeworks ) project intended to preserve fanworks and make them centrally accessible online –  has **imported around 27K fanworks** **to AO3** so far.  Which is truly awesome, but also tiny compared to the nearly 2 million fanworks on AO3, and thus not in danger of skewing overall fandom statistics.  As you can see from the first graph above (maybe, if you can read the small print – sorry! – **the biggest import projects were older Yuletide works, and fandom-specific archives for The Sentinel, Middle Earth, and Smallville.**

(Note that some of these archive imports are still in progress, and will become much larger over time – I’ve only included the works already on AO3.)

However, in certain fandoms, especially some older and less active fandoms, this does make up a substantial portion of the fanworks on AO3.  In the second graph, you can see that **over half of The Sentinel fanworks come from Open Doors’ imports, and over a quarter of the Smallville and Blake’s 7 fanworks.**

**So how do the statistics of the Open Doors works compare to the works of AO3 overall?  It depends greatly on the specific archive that was imported.**  I took notes on the [unusual characteristics of each set of fanworks](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1u65OfGXzO-JcEVfF4qMS03unq4J47E5c-5NnL3repbA/edit#gid=1327887867) in my [spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1u65OfGXzO-JcEVfF4qMS03unq4J47E5c-5NnL3repbA/edit#gid=1327887867).  (You’re welcome to make use the raw data.)  Based on overall Open Doors trends I observed, I’d say that with a few exceptions, **many of these fandoms now skew much more heavily explicit, slashy, and/or toward a particular ship due to imports.**  (One example of an exception: Middle Earth fandoms probably now skew more heavily gen/non-shippy due to the imports.)

The Open Doors volunteers also had the following to say about assigning Archive Warnings to imported works:

> **By default, we use the warning, “Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings”, but if the incoming-archive has warnings similar to the ones that the AO3 uses, we use those instead or as well as.** (Any other warning types are imported as Additional Tags.)  
>    
>  The percentage of unclaimed works varies by archive; it’s actually really hard to say! I think it helps if the archive was very active before import, and if its user base already had AO3 accounts. Publicity for the import also helps–we still get claims for the Smallville Slash Archive and other older imports sometimes, after an announcement has gone out for a new import. Sometimes people also intentionally don’t claim their works, if they were written a long time ago, or are no longer active in that fandom.   
> 

I calculated the percentage of fanworks in the relevant Open Doors AO3 collections that are labeled “Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings” (Yuletide excluded, because that collection on AO3 is actually mostly not Open Doors imports):

**Open Doors works are far more likely to be tagged “Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings” (84% vs. 36%).**  However, as I said, this varies greatly by imported archive.  And this isn’t a large enough set of fanworks to skew analyses of the archive warnings as a whole.  

**TL;DR:** Overall, you probably don’t have to worry about the impact of Open Doors too much for many fandom stats projects, especially those focusing on all of AO3 or most currently active fandoms.  But if you’re doing fandom analysis of a specific fandom or comparing a set of fandoms, it could make a difference. And in general, it’s always worth looking and seeing if Open Doors has mass imported works into your fandom, or if there are any other large scale trends in that fandom (e.g., challenges relating to a specific ship) that might strongly influence the data you get, when you’re trying to understand your dataset.  

Also, Open Doors is a cool project saving a bunch of older online and print fanworks that might otherwise disappear, and it’s fun to look through their [collections](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Open_Doors/collections) – some of which are open and accepting thematically related works in their new home.

[[raw data](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1u65OfGXzO-JcEVfF4qMS03unq4J47E5c-5NnL3repbA/edit#gid=1327887867)]


End file.
